Cadillac designers took advantage of advances in LED technology to use lighting to convey drama and space alongside functional benefits. The XTS includes LEDs embedded in the door handles, Cadillac-signature vertical LEDs in the headlights and taillights and ambient lighting in and around the car’s perimeter.

Cadillac intends the lighting to extend the car’s design signature as well as provide convenience and additional security to drivers in parking lots at night.

“We sketched each phase of the process to carefully choreograph how every important area inside and outside of the vehicle would come up and fade back down, similar to a production crew lighting a theater stage,” said Christos Roustemis, Cadillac interior designer.

Creation of dramatic effects and pleasing spaces has long been a trademark of lighting design, said Rosemarie Allaire, a California-based architectural lighting designer. She says advances in LED lighting have opened the way to new possibilities in lighting design.

“In cars, just as in architecture, lighting defines how we feel about a space. It is both artistry and user experience,” Allaire said. “For me, the beauty is in the blends, how you layer the affects, mix the light sources, and how you package it into the final product.”

The XTS lighting choreography is timed to the fraction of a second by the car’s central control system, and is cued by various triggers, such as the key fob, the doors and ignition switch. The car’s exterior lighting brightens the perimeter of the car to provide an added level of security and make the car easier to locate.

Cadillac first used a vertical lighting signature as an exterior design theme in 1948. In Cadillac’s Art & Science design language that has defined Cadillac for the last dozen years, designers use thin, vertical LED “light pipes” in both the front and rear corners of the car.

The world's No. 1 online marketplace and trader for professional chauffeured and chartered vehicles, including all types of motorcoaches, buses, vans, stretch limousines, sedans, SUVs, exotics, and classics. New and used vehicles are available from sellers across the nation.